Amur Tiger Conservation in Lazovsky Zapovednik … Fish and Wildlife Service Rhinocerus and Tiger...
Transcript of Amur Tiger Conservation in Lazovsky Zapovednik … Fish and Wildlife Service Rhinocerus and Tiger...
Prepared for the WildCats Conservation Alliance by ZSL, April 2018
Final report to WildCats Conservation Alliance from the Zoological Society of London
Amur Tiger Conservation in Lazovsky Zapovednik and Adjacent Areas, January-December 2017
Image: Adult male Amur tiger “Petrovich”, estimated age 5-7 years old, photographed using a
camera trap in Lazovsky Zapovednik, December 2017. Tigers often walk on roads leaving them
vulnerable to poaching.
Summary
The Zoological Society of London’s (ZSL’s) Amur tiger conservation project in
Lazovsky Zapovednik and Adjacent Areas has achieved several successes over
the past years thanks to generous support from ALTA. Our overall project goal was
to develop our holistic programme for tiger conservation in the Lazovsky
Zapovednik (LZ), Zov Tigra National Park (ZT), and adjacent areas. The following
Prepared for the WildCats Conservation Alliance by ZSL, April 2018
provides a summary of our progress and achievements since the onset of the
project and a more detailed description of our activities in 2017 (and supplimantary
information gathered January-April 2018). During this time, ZSL helped implement
improved management plans that have increased the effectiveness of anti-
poaching activities in the area, and continued long-term population and disease
monitoring. Population monitoring results for 2017 reveal the effectiveness of our
conservation strategies, including a stable and healthy population of reproducing
adult tigers in the area. The fifth year of monitoring efforts in the unprotected area
between LZ and ZT provided evidence that tigers are surviving and reproducing in
those areas as well. Our aim is to continue to focus on anti-poaching efforts and
address other threats that become apparent, e.g. wildifes, in protected areas and,
in turn, increase tiger and prey numbers, verified by effective monitoring results.
The continued success of our conservation activities will ensure a source of tigers
for dispersal into adjacent unprotected areas with fewer tigers.
Key project achievements (2009 – 2017):
• Established a “first-step” partnership agreement between ZSL and the Russian
NGO “ANO AMUR” to facilitate legal financial support for anti-poaching activities
in the United Administrations of Lazovsky Zapovednik and Zov Tigra National Park
(UALZZT). The first step focused on transferring funds to establish Rapid
Response teams in the protected areas. The next-step agreement is planned for
2018 and will include transfer of funds for all project activities.
• Collaborated with partners at PRNCO tiger centre to increase tigers in historic
ranges by providing veterinary care to rehabilitating injured and orphaned tigers
until their release back to the wild. Dr. Misha Goncharuk (ZSLs wildlife veterinarian
for Russia) has been instrumental in safe and effective immobilizations
(anaesthesiology) of animals during capture, health checks, and preparations for
release to the wild.
• Renewed partnership between ZSL and the protected areas of Lazovsky
Zapovednik and Zov Tigra National Park.
• Increased accuracy of tiger monitoring, achieved through the expansion of camera
trap surveys to two new areas, Zov Tigra National Park (beginning in 2011) and
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the adjoining unprotected “Medved” hunting lease (MHL, beginning in 2013) and
Southern Valley hunting lease (SVHL, beginning in 2016).
• Informed a proposed expansion of the Zapovednik territory to a size that better
protects resident reproducing tigers through expanding our monitoring area and
providing critical information on how tigers move from protected areas into
unprotected areas. While the proposed expansion (initiated in 2013) is still
undecided, we continue to update the proposal with newly discovered information
on tiger movements from our ongoing surveys. In 2015 - 2017 we were able to
document that tigers born in LZ populated both LZ and ZT as adults and
reproduced, strengthening the idea that LZ provides a source of tigers into new
areas.
• Beginning in 2013, improved tiger prey monitoring in ZT was achieved through
collaboration with the National Park management to help them conduct winter
track surveys of ungulates according to approved standards; information that now
provides baseline numbers for winter count comparisons conducted by ULZZT
staff.
• At the request of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the
Russian Federation, we informed a planned range-wide tiger track count survey
(conducted every ten years and occurring in February 2015) by providing data on
recent population trends in LZ and ZT. Our input was requested based on ZSL’s
camera trapping methods and expertise in using camera trap surveys in Russia’s
low density tiger population and cold climate, which is accepted as best practice
and used as a model.
• Increased tiger numbers, resulting from better anti-poaching management in
protected areas.
• Arrest and conviction of an organised tiger poacher working near protected area
boundaries.
• Improved wildlife disease management aimed at reducing threats to tigers, Amur
leopards and other wildlife species.
• Completion of Russia’s only wildlife health laboratory to serve the area, disease
monitoring to inform prevention strategies, and research to better understand the
environmental source of canine distemper virus (CDV), fatal to tigers and leopards.
• In 2015, we co-authored “Disease risk assessment for re-introduction of Amur
leopards (Panthera pardus orientalis) into the Russian Far East”. This document
Prepared for the WildCats Conservation Alliance by ZSL, April 2018
will not only be used to inform plans for the re-introduction of leopards, but is also
being used as a model for range-wide disease monitoring of threats to Amur tigers
in Russia.
• Increased awareness of the plight of the Amur tiger, through educating local people
using camera trap photographs. Our presentation has been integrated into LZ’s
and ZT’s tourist programmes (and integrated in ULZZT in 2014), as well as the
biology curriculum at the local primary and secondary school in Lazo attended by
about 80 students annually.
Project update
ZSL’s Amur tiger conservation project has seen some important achievements over the
past year. The generous support from ALTA provided an important boost to the project
continuing through 2017. The funds provided financial security for our work with Amur
tigers, supporting our vital core monitoring (of population and disease), anti-poaching and
educational activities. Your suppport also helped us expand our monitoring range in 2011
to include the nearby Zov Tigra National Park, a then-newly created protected area, within
which little was known about the numbers and density of tigers. In 2013, we were able to
include the Medved Hunting Lease, and later Southern Valley hunting lease, both situated
between LZ and ZT. This in turn enabled the team to gain a greater understanding of tigers
in the region and helped inform recommendations for further conservation action.
ALTA’s support also helped us leverage additional funding in 2017 from sources including
US Fish and Wildlife Service Rhinocerus and Tiger Conservation Fund, Hennig-Olsen ice
cream, and the Indianapolis Zoo Conservation Fund.
Our key achievements against objectives in January-December 2017, with supplemental
information from January-April 2018, are described below:
Monitoring of Amur tigers
Over the past 10 (2008-2017) years, ZSL has been using camera traps and conducting
snow track surveys to monitor tigers in LZ; we have also been using these methods for
the past 8 years in ZT (although we have been involved indirectly with tiger monitoring
Prepared for the WildCats Conservation Alliance by ZSL, April 2018
since 2001). In November 2014, LZ and ZT were joined to form the United Administration
of Lazovsky Zapovednik and Zov Tigra National Park (ULZZT), but they continue their
original functions as a strictly protected area (LZ) and a national park (ZT), so we continue
to refer to them as such. Because it is critical to understand how tigers move between the
two protected areas, we extended our survey in 2013 to include the unprotected Medved
Hunting Lease between LZ and ZT, managed by a private hunting club. In 2016, thanks
to support from ALTA and other sponsors, we again extended our survey to include the
Southern Valley Hunting lease (SVHL)(Figure 1). Monitoring a larger contiguous area
provided better information about tiger survival, reproduction and movements through
unprotected areas, where they are likely to be more susceptible to poaching. This year
(2017), we continued our long-term tiger monitoring over the tiger landscape shown in
Figures 1-3.
Figure 1. ZSL Russia Amur tiger conservation landscape, including Lazovsky Zapovednik (LZ),
Medved Hunting lease (MHL), Southern Valley Hunting Lease (SVHL), and Zov Tigra National Park
(ZT).
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Figure 2. ZSL Russia Amur tiger conservation landscape showing tiger habitat in Lazovsky
Zapovednik (LZ) and it's coastal boundary on the Sea of Japan. The area is mixed broad leaved
and conifer forest with stunted oak tress at high elevations.
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Figure 3. ZSL Russia Amur tiger conservation landscape showing tiger habitat in Zov Tigra
National Park. The area is conifer and broad leaved forest tiger habitat on the Milogradovka and
Ussuri rivers.
Together with UALZZT, we completed our annual camera trapping surveys between
December 2016 and May 2017 (hereafter referred to as the “2017 tiger survey”), and again
Between December 2017 and May 2018 (the “2018 tiger survey) operating 60-paired
camera trap stations in LZ, 28 in ZT, 25 in MHL, and eight in SVHL, over 90 day-periods
(Figures 4 and 5). Forty camera traps were left in LZ and ZT year round to record
supplemental information about resident tigers, including site persistence, body condition,
and evidence of reproduction (cubs or lactating females). Due to numerous forest fires in
April-May, the 2018 tiger survey results are only preliminary and minimal because 50% of
our camera traps are still in the forest.
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Figure 4. Camera trap locations with black dots in protected areas, purple dots in MHL, and orange
dots in SVHL. The total survey area is roughly 2,800 km2.
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Figure 5: Two ZSL employees setting camera traps for the 2017 tiger monitoring survey.
For the 2017 camera trap survey conducted in combined areas LZ, ZT, MHL and SVHL
we estimated 19-24 adult tigers analyzed using the program MARK for capture-recapture
closed populations over a period of 13,341 trap/days, and 115 photographs of tigers. The
minimum number of tigers identified from photographs was 19 adults: eleven females and
eight males, and one new litter of cubs. For the 2018 tiger survey, preliminary results show
a minimum of 18 adults: eleven females and seven males, and one new litter of cubs
(Table 1). In April 2018, we recorded a second litter of three cubs (8-10 months of age)
born in 2017. Mother tigers can be secretive and difficult to photograph during short tiger
surveys. This example illustrates the value of supplementary trap days which provided
valuable information on reproduction.
Comparisons with surveys from previous years suggest the tiger population is stable
(Table 1 and Figure 6). For 2017 survey, we also recorded three sub-adults (2-3 years-of-
age and independent of mothers) previously identified as cubs from photographs of family
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groups. One additional sub-adult female previously identified as a cub was recorded in
December 2017. Female tigers can give birth every 18-24 months, hence two new litters
in 2017 is not unusual following eight litters in 2015-2016 because most females still have
cubs from the previous year. The new litter recorded for 2017 (in LZ) are significant
because 1) we have monitored one mother "Sabrina" since 2009 and this is her fourth
litter of three cubs at her estimated age of 12 to 13 years, and 2) the second litter was
born to mother “Tanya” and is the first successful reproduction in the Sharokia river area
of LZ since intense poaching in 2009-2012. Information on survivorship and lifetime
reproduction for tigers is rare and provides a measure of a healthy reproducing population.
Reproductive depression and long recovery time after poaching has been recorded for
tigers in other areas.
Table 1. Minimum number of adult tigers, litters of cubs and total number of cubs
photographed during the surveys 2016-2017 and preliminary results during survey 2018
in combined areas of Lazovsky Zapovednik, Medved Hunting Lease, Southern Valley
Hunting Lease and Zov Tigra National Park. Number in parentheses are totals added
retrospectively after surveys end. Results from 2018 (shown in red) are still incomplete.
Sex 2016 2017 2018
Adult females 12 11 11
Adult males 8 8 7
Total adults 20 19 18
Sub-adults 0 3
New litters 7 1(2) 1
Cubs 17 3(6) 3
Total number of tigers 37 25(28) 22
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Figure 6. The number of tigers estimated each year (2013-2017) in combined areas LZ, ZT, MHL,
and SVHL. Results are the estimated number of adult tigers and error bars are 95% confidence
intervals; the minimum number of adult male and female tigers contributing to “adult combined” ;
and sub-adults, litters and number of cubs recorded for each year. Only known tigers were listed
as subadults (18-36 month-of age and independent of mothers) because age can be difficult to
estimate after 18 months of age. Adult tigers were estimated during 90-day surveys in winter, but
new litters were recorded for the year of estimated birth date regardless of when the litter was first
discovered. For example if a litter born in December one year, we may only gain photographs or
pug mark verification when cubs were as old as 16 months of age.
Since cubs stay with mothers for 18-24 months, family groups can be recorded in multiple
years, hence long-term monitoring allows for collection of information about survivorship
and dispersals when individuals stay within our survey area to be photographed. Eleven
litters of cubs had estimated birth years in 2015 and 2018 (some photographed multiple
times) and ranged in size from one to four cubs. Eight of those litters were photographed
in the protected areas UALZZT (two litters in ZT and six in LZ ) and two were recorded in
MHL showing that reproduction is successful there as well.
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
Esti
mat
ed n
um
ber
of
tige
rs
Adults combined Adult females
Adult males subadult
Litters Total number of cubs
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Fifty individual adult and subadult tigers were photographed and 16 litters of cubs recorded
during 36,540 trap days from 2013-2017 over combined survey area of LZ, ZT, MHL, and
SVHL (25 males and 25 females) (Tables 2 and 3). Twenty tigers were recorded in only
one year of surveys (12 males and 8 females) and 27 were recorded for 2 or more years.
Breeding “resident” tigers are long-lived territorial animals with large home ranges, and
have a high chance of being recorded each year by camera traps located within their
territories. Only one female (F19) was not located in each consecutive year after first
identification. After not being photographed in 2016, F19 was photographed again in 2017
with an injured right front foot and we suspect her absence was due to limited movements
while she recovered from a trauma. In this study, tigers photographed in single years may
be dispersing subadults, displaced adults, resident tigers using the edge of their home
range where they travel less frequently, “new” tigers photographed for the first time on the
last year of surveys and that may be located the next year, or animals that have died
before the next survey year. Only one tiger’s death from natural causes was verified in
spring of 2014 when his body melted out of river ice after he fell through the ice and
drowned in winter. Prior to 2013 combined surveys, two tigers (1 male and 1 female) were
confirmed poached after we identified them by comparing stripe patterns on their
confiscated skins to camera trap photographs. We have no verified poached tiger from
photographed tigers after 2013 but we know low levels of poaching continue.
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Table 2. Photographic histories of 25 adult female tigers photographed in LZ, ZT, MHL, and SVHL from
2013 to 2018. “X” indicates the territory where a tiger was photographed, “X” indicates a tiger has been
recorded in 2018, and numbers are sets of photographs taken of each tiger per year. Green cells
represent tigers that were first identified as cubs from known mothers. Orange cells represent litter birth
years.
Territory Year of survey
ID
First Recorded
LZ
MHL
SVHL
ZT
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
Name
F04 2008 X 46 20 18 16 10 X Sabrina
F05 2008 X X X 6 28 6 15 3 Lena
F08 2009 X 1 1 6 Luba
F09 2008 X 47 5 6 7 9 X Maria
F10 2010 X X 15 24 21 Dasha
F13 2011 X 24 18 Victoria
F15 2013 X 1 Goral
F16 2012 X X 8 10 9 Tilda
F17 2011 X 5 11 5 7 5 X Lucky
F18 2013 X 8 Limp
F19 2013 X 5 1 3 0 1 X Ussura
F20 2013 X 2 Medved
F21 2013 X 1 Once
F22 2011 X 1 23 6 5 8 ? Ivy
F23 2014 X 1 Stripe
F24 2013 X 1 17 13 25 X Kimberly
F25 2013 X 1 24 12 Leslie
F27 2014 X X X 1 24 96 38 X Anna
F30 2016 X 23 26 X Tanya
F31 2016 X 17 30 X Izabella
F32 2015 X X 2 23 4 X Grace
F33 2015 X X 1 1 1 ? F22cub
F35 2016 X 1 1 ? F32 Cub
F36 2015 X 1 1 X F22 cub
F37 2018 X X Juk
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Table 3. Photographic histories of 25 adult male tigers photographed in LZ, ZT, MHL, and SVHL from
2013 to 2018. “X” indicates the territory where a tiger was photographed, “X” indicates a tiger has been
recorded in 2018, and numbers are sets of photographs taken of each tiger per year. Green cells
represent tigers that were first identified as cubs from known mothers.
Territory Year of survey
ID First Recorded
LZ MHL SVHL ZT 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Name
M09 2009 X X 44 52 45 42 56 X Yasha
M11 2011 X 3 C boy
M12 2013 X 1 Big guy
M13 2012 X X X 8 30 31 13 Bobtail
M14 2012 X 21
M15 2013 X X 16 38 Misha
M16 2013 X 12
M17 2013 X 1 K2
M18 2013 X 2 2stripes
M19 2014 X 20 72 68 3 Valara
M20 2013 X 1 0 stripe
M21 2011 X 1 30 Checkers
M22 2014 X 1
M23 2011 X 1 1 drowned
M24 2014 X 6 1 1 3 X Petrov
M25 2015 X 13 26 27 X Ringtail
M30 2014 X 4 Goral
M32 2015 X 1 7
M33 2016 X 18 35 X David
M34 2015 X X 52 X Roger
M35 2016 X 1 15 X Petrovich
M37 2015 X 16
M39 2013 X 1 Tilda 1
M40 2013 X 2 Tilda 2
M42 2018 X X Juk
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Our long-term monitoring work enabled us to investigate longevity and construct a
population phylogeny (Tables 2 and 3): four of 12 tigresses with litters during 2013-2018
(F17, F22, F24, and F27) (Table 2) were first identified as the cubs of known mothers
from LZ and ZT and they produced their first litters when they were from 4 to 6 years of
age. On the other hand, F04 is thought to be 11-12 years old and is mother to her fourth
litter (each with three cubs) in 2017 (her first litter was born in 2011)(Table 2). A sub-adult
male tiger (M34, Table 3) born in LZ in 2015 to F04 was photographed numerous times
in ZT and LZ in 2017 and as an adult in 2018, having dispersed from his natal home range,
and a subadult female F35 also borne in LZ to F22 was recorded in SVHL, having
dispersed from her natal home range. Our results support previous evidence that LZ and
ZT functions as a core breeding area providing a source population of tigers capable of
dispersing and recolonizing areas in which tiger populations had plummeted due to
poaching. For example, two of three reproducing female tigers residing in ZT dispersed
from natal LZ.
Our overall program goal is to continue to develop our holistic programme for tiger
conservation in the Lazovsky Zapovednik (LZ), Zov Tigra National Park (ZT), and adjacent
areas. The WildCats Conservation Alliance provided critical funds for critical tiger
population monitoring used to measure the effectiveness of conservation activities.
Wildfires, driven by severe drought, threatened tiger habitat in 2018. In April- May, when
forest fires burned over 10,000 hectares of ZT’s precious coniferous forests, UALZZT
rapid response team (RRT) (supported by WildCats Conservation Alliance) were able to
save three young tiger cubs (estimated 1 month of age) found by them on the edge of a
burn while they fought the fires. Fresh mother tiger tracks in the area informed the expert
RRT that cubs were not abandoned and so they acted quickly to put out the fire while
keeping a safe distance from cubs to minimize disturbance to the animals and for their
own safety. From information gathered during long-term monitoring, we suspect that the
cubs belong to F24 (table 2). If the litter survives, future tiger surveys should provide an
answer.
The following map (Figure 7), and camera trap photographs from the recently completed
surveys illustrates how we continue to monitor reproduction, dispersal, and recruitment
over generations as part of our long-term monitoring work.
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Figure 7. Resident female tigers (in yellow), their dispersed female offspring (indicated with solid
red arrows pointing away from mothers) detected in our survey areas, third generation dispersing
female offspring (indicated in dashed red arrows) detected in our survey areas, and young litters
still traveling with their mothers (blue stars); all monitored with camera traps in LZ (1), ZT(2), MHL
(3), and SVHL (4) from 2008-2017.
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Figure 8 and 9. Resident female F4 “Sabrina” (top) with one of three cubs (above) and all three
cubs (below) at a scent-marking tree in LZ January 2018. Their estimated birthday is June - July
2017. We have monitored Sabrina since 2008. Night time photographs of tigers with infrared flash
on camera traps make tigers seem white, but they are normal colored brown with black stripes.
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Figure 10. Male (right) and female (left) cubs from Sabrina’s fourth litter photographed in May 2018.
All three cubs had survived to 10-11 months of age with 2 males and one female.
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.
Figure 11. Three male cubs (bottom images) from F30’s (Tanya) (Top image) litter at 9-10 months of age in April 2018. This is the first successful
litter produced in Sharokia river area of LZ since intensive poaching in 2009-2012. We have monitored Tanya since 2016.
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Figure 12. We detected that F19 (photographed here in September 2017) had a hurt left front paw and in these photos she is limping and holding
her foot under her. We found tracks of a limping tiger as late as February 2018, and suspect it was her.
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Figure 13. UALZZT and ZSL’s rapid response team preparing to fight fires and shown here filling
backpack water sprayers from available water source in remote ZT in May 2018.
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Figure 14. Forest fire in ZT conifer forest in April 2018.
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Figure 15. Smoke from fires in an overlook of Zov Tigra National Park May 20, 2018. The red
arrow shows where three one-month old cubs were found on May 29 near a burned area. Nearby
tracks indicated that the mother was still present and quick action by Rangers assured minimal
disturbance while making sure no fires were still burning in the area. Fires were officially out on
May 30th.